


Romeo & Law Student

by fancypineapple



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: #Wokeness, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Excessive Christianity-related Swearing, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-26
Updated: 2016-09-26
Packaged: 2018-08-17 05:22:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8132050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fancypineapple/pseuds/fancypineapple
Summary: “It’s not that. He’s an equalitist, and you’re an alpha. Equalitists hate alphas—”“Equalitists are distrustful of alphas,” Jongdae corrects her sternly.“Reasonably so,” Amber shrugs. “Alphas are dickhats. Not you, Yixing, but he doesn’t know that.”





	

**Author's Note:**

> comission for the lovely and incredibly kind alicia!! ♥ i tried to give this fic a twist by focusing on social debate about abo dynamics, but as a result the fic barely looks like an abo fic. OTL but i did my best, so i hope you like it!! ♥♥♥

I am here to tell you the tale of Zhang Yixing’s Love At First Sight. It might get a little long, but I assure you, it’s a fun, refreshing story.

As you might already know, the Love At First Sight is a phenomenon common to almost all alphas, like heat is for omegas. It has many names: imprinting, soulmating, primamor… all of which refer to the exact same situation, believed to be an abrupt hormonal reaction towards a particular person’s scent. (Scientists once thought, and some still do, that this reaction was triggered exclusively by an omega’s scent, but equal rights activists strongly oppose to that assumption.)

Very well, let’s talk about Zhang Yixing. Zhang Yixing was born in Changsha, Hunan province, People’s Republic of China. At age eighteen, he graduated high school, and moved to Beijing to study International Affairs at a big, prestigious university. Soon, as he started learning more about the social scenario he was a part of and being more conscious of his privilege as an alpha, he started opposing to the university’s segregatory educational system, and et cetera and all – this part of the story is far too long and complexly nuanced for me to report in an entertaining manner, so I’ll move forward.

The thing is: after only one year and a half, Yixing quit his major, and started searching for non-segregatory institutions nearby. He was bitterly disappointed when he found none in his own country, but one certain university located in Seoul, South Korea, caught his eye. So, at age twenty-one, Yixing took the admission test to this university, and passed without a hitch. Within a month, he found, over the internet, a place to live – a small apartment owned by a friend of a friend and inhabited by friends of that friend of a friend. 

At this point, you might’ve skipped a few bits of this backstory, wondering what’s relevant about it. What about Yixing’s Love At First Sight?, you ask. Well, it happens in this town, in this university, a couple of weeks after his classes start…

Yixing is, as he has been for a while, a little early; when he arrives at the classroom where’s he’s supposed to be, the previous class is just ending, with some students already packing his things and leaving for home, or for the library, or something like that. Among those leaving right now, Yixing knows he will find a friend.

“Early again,” Kim Jongdae comments when he spots Yixing at the doorframe. “You disgust me.”

“Oh?” Yixing, not entirely accustomed to this kind of sudden joke, is legitimately startled.

“I hate good students,” Jongdae repeats, squinting his eyes exaggeratedly, and this time Yixing gets it. He laughs. “You have Sociology now, right?” 

“Yes! Till five o’clock,” is the answer.

“Don’t wait for me, I’ll go home at nine or something.” This Kim Jongdae figure is actually one of Yixing’s flatmates. He’s a friendly, quick-witted beta, and a slightly less-than-perfect Literature student. “Gotta go now. Have a nice class, or something.”

“Thank you!” Yixing beams. “I really like Sociology,” he adds with ambiguous purposes. Jongdae makes a retching sound, and goes away without another word.

Yixing, then, enters the room, along with a couple of equally early classmates. He chooses a seat, he sits down, he waits, and everything about that day is looking ordinary so far. The poor thing doesn’t know yet; the only ones who know are those who know everything. Commence the countdown to a life-changing event in Yixing’s life: the rest of his classmates arriving counts as five… the teacher arriving as well, four… a quiet hubbub as everyone gets ready for the class, three… the teacher starts his lecture at a slow pace, two…

The door opening – one.

“Excuse me,” says a voice at the door, and Yixing instinctively looks up.

Zero.

“Oh, look at this,” the teacher says, somewhat sardonically, as a smiling figure enters the room. “Byun Baekhyun finally showed up! A bit late, I’d say, but I’m honored.”

“Fashionably late, sir,” the person named Byun Baekhyun grins, choosing a seat near the door. The teacher snorts.

“So ‘two weeks’ is fashionably late for you, huh?” Accuses the teacher. Baekhyun merely shrugs, rather cheekily so. “Very well. As I was saying…”

You see, before we go check on Yixing’s point of view of this happening, I have something else to explain to those who might not know about Love At First Sight very well. The media makes you believe that imprinting is a sensation, a specific feeling, rather than an event. In reality, the feeling itself varies greatly from alpha to alpha (and whoever else might experience it); it can be a piercing pain in the chest, a sudden fire in the pits of your stomach, even an inexplicable surge of bliss. It can feel like a wave crashing, or a flower blooming, or even something in between.

For Yixing, it’s the exact, precise feeling of being hit by a freight train.

He almost lurches back when he sees Baekhyun for the first time, breath knocked out of his lungs from the sheer intensity of the sensation. His limbs feel numb; the fingers he has around his pencil turn icy cold, as do his palms and nape. On the other side, his chest, thighs, and face burn. It’s confusing. And intense. And Baekhyun glows to his eyes like a rare bird. And his mouth, down to his throat, down to his esophagus - it all feels drier than sand, and he’s absolutely parched, all of sudden.

As his head and joints start to ache, he realizes what happened. Oh God. He’s in love. The train that hit him – it had Byun Baekhyun’s name on it. 

He’s done for.

And if you think the tale ends here, you are gravely mistaken. This, for better or for worse, is only the beginning.

 

 

 

The entire Sociology class goes by and Yixing doesn’t hear a single word of it. He, whose favorite subject is precisely Sociology, who gave up International Affairs to take Social Studies, who doesn’t go through a single class without absorbing all of its content – at the end of that particular class, he doesn’t even know what it was about.

All he knows is Byun Baekhyun.

Baekhyun spends the class toying with his phone and making poignant, but humorous, comments here and there. His skin is rather pale, his hair is light brown and fluffy, his fingers are slender, and his smile – it’s hard to point out what in his smile stands out, but it’s uncommon. His voice is very loud. His lips… each one of his features, no matter however regular they might be to anyone else, effortlessly capture Yixing’s attention.

It takes one hour for Yixing to be deeper in love than he has ever been in his whole life.

“... dismissed,” the teacher’s voice echoes dully in Yixing’s ear. He only notices that the class is over when he sees Baekhyun get up, which startles him. Glancing around as if to make sure none of his classmates have caught him – as if there could possibly be a neon sign over his head announcing his feelings to the world – he quickly gathers his own things, head void of all matters but one.

When he looks again, Baekhyun is gone from his seat, and from the classroom. Yixing immediately rushes. 

He catches sight of Baekhyun’s back in the crowd, walking away at a lax pace, and his legs practically guide themselves towards him. When he read in his parents’ romance books, or heard in his own favorite romantic flicks, that the feeling of love could be compared to a magnet pulling you towards someone, he really didn’t expect it to be so literal. It’s like he’s gliding through the air, light as a feather, and Baekhyun is the force of gravity.

The real force of gravity, presumably insulted by this comparison, grabs Yixing by the toe and slams him to the ground. There he goes. It’s not exactly unheard of, Yixing tripping on sheer oxygen, but honestly, this timing! Around him, a low, guilty rumble of laughter resonates through the crowd. Yixing starts getting up, distractedly checking his nose for blood or broken parts. 

“You alright?” A familiar voice calls Yixing. No, it’s not Baekhyun, unfortunately. It’s Jongdae. He’s frowning. “How did you end up down there?”

“I fell down…” Yixing explains simply, accepting Jongdae’s help to get back on his feet. His eyes browse the small crowd and beyond for a certain figure. “But I’m okay. I just tripped.”

Jongdae’s frown deepens at that. The crowd starts to disperse. “You’re sure you’re okay? Because, like, you’re pale. And you’re not looking at me.”

“I’m fine,” Yixing assures him, but he’s not fine. Love At First Sight is very similar to an omega’s heat in some points; one of them is that both cause very distinct physical unwellness, and this particular symptom is catching up with Yixing as we speak. “I mean, I’m… dizzy. But fine.”

He’s inching further away from fine by the minute.

Luckily, Jongdae doesn’t buy his dismissal. Instead, he puts a hand to his forehead. “Awesome,” he mutters. “Looks like you have a fever. That’s our cue. We’re going home.”

Yixing widens his eyes. Deep inside him, along with his revolving stomach, a foreign feeling of yearning burns. “But—”

“No buts. I’ve been searching for a reason to skip my four last periods and you came just in time.” A little forcefully, Jongdae turns Yixing around and pushes his back. “What’s with you? You’re sick. Don’t you want to go home?”

“No,” Yixing winces quietly, feeling what could be the beginning waves of a panic attack tickle his stomach. He frowns sadly. “Help.”

If Jongdae were any of us, he’d be utterly confused by that response. Thankfully, Jongdae is a very no-bullshit person, and, at that moment, he stops trying to understand what’s happening, rolls his eyes, and starts dragging Yixing home. 

 

When they arrive at their shared flat, Amber, their other roommate and a sagacious alpha, is reading comics on the couch. As she hears them coming in, she raises her eyes to look at them – and then she whistles.

“Look at that,” she mutters, only slightly surprised. “He imprinted at uni?”

Yixing and Jongdae halt on their tracks. Jongdae casts a glance at Yixing, eyebrows furrowed with renewed confusion. “Is this what imprinting is supposed to look like? I thought he was running a fever.”

“Well, yeah, typically it resembles a fever.” Deeming the subject interesting enough for her attention, Amber tosses her comic aside and slides off the couch to approach them. “Except you don’t look like someone ran you over with a steamroller when you’ve imprinted. You look like this,” she points at Yixing’s face. Yixing’s eyes dart back and forth between his two roommates, wondering what he looks like right now. He does feel like he was run over by a steamroller though. Multiple times. He barely registers Amber turning to look at him. “So?”

So, Yixing mentally repeats to himself. What was it again? Fever? Steamrollers? Uni? Byun Baekhyun?

A smiles bloom on his face involuntarily, and he lets out a sickening chuckle.

Amber and Jongdae stare at him in horror.

“Sit him down and give him some water,” Amber commands, eyes not leaving Yixing’s figure. “I’m gonna fetch some suppressants.”

“Roger that,” Jongdae replies robotically, and starts maneuvering Yixing towards the dining table with relative ease. “What do you usually take for these?”

It takes Yixing a second to realize Jongdae’s question is directed to him. “Uh… I’ve never…”

“You’ve never taken any medicine?” Jongdae pushes him down onto a chair.

“I never had this,” Yixing confesses, indicating himself with a feeble hand gesture, accepting the manhandling with little to no resistance. “It’s the first time.”

At that, Jongdae takes a step back, staring at Yixing in shock. “You’re telling me you’ve never imprinted?”

Yixing nods.

“Whaaaat,” Amber exclaims as she comes back from her room, a little first-aid box in hands. “You’re a really late bloomer then. Aren’t you twenty-one? I imprinted for the first time when I was fifteen or something.”

Jongdae makes a face. “TMI.”

“It’s a bodily function, Jongdae, not a crime,” Amber rolls her eyes, fiddling with the medicine for a while before choosing one particular box. “Here. This is probably the least aggressive one. If it doesn’t work, we’ll just have to try something else.”

The suppressant takes form in one moderately-sized pink capsule, which Yixing swallows with some difficulty. He sits at the table, sipping from a glass of water and waiting for the symptoms to subside, and his roommates stay with him, Jongdae sitting to his right, Amber sitting to his left.

“So?” Amber asks after a minute.

Yixing smiles. “I’m starting to feel a little better.” It’s not entirely true, as the medicine hasn’t kicked in yet.

“No, that’s not what I mean,” Amber retorts. “How was it? Who did you imprint on?”

“Ah.” Yixing blinks, still a little dizzy, and the same lovesick smile from before makes a terrifying comeback on his face. “Ah, um, hehe.”

“I’m gonna barf,” Jongdae shudders, his hands curling into balls involuntarily. “Stop with that creepy smile.”

“Who was it? Are they in your class?” Amber shows no signs of being creeped by Yixing’s creepy smile. She’s avidly curious. “Alpha? Omega? Beta?”

“I don’t know yet,” Yixing answers, looking down to his glass of water. With little effort, he can evoke Byun Baekhyun’s face from his memories, and warmth spreads in his chest. “I didn’t talk to him. He’s in my Sociology class. His name is Byun Baekhyun.”

It’s a really pretty name, Yixing thinks to himself, taking another sip of water. It has a ring to it, like raindrops or fizzing bubbles in a tall glass of cold soda. He then notices that Amber and Jongdae are oddly silent following that statement; glancing to the sides, he finds both of them staring at him with wide, wide eyes.

“Shit,” is all that Jongdae says, looking away from Yixing as if he had done something extremely embarrassing.

“Byun Baekhyun, huh…” Amber looks like she’s trying to come up with something non-alarming to say. Yixing is suddenly alarmed.

“Yeah,” he says, eyes darting back and forth between his two roommates. Jongdae has now burried his face in his hands, and is laughing a bit hysterically. “Why…?”

With a sigh, Amber shoots a disapproving glare at Jongdae, and, judging by the subsequent noise, kicks his shins under the table. Jongdae’s laughter turns into a whimper. “It’s just—you see, Yixing—”

“You see, _Yixing_ ,” Jongdae interrupts her, clasping both of Yixing’s hands with his own. “This Byun Baekhyun you speak of – is he a short little man who looks like a twelve year-old but is actually a law student?”

Yixing blinks. “He’s a bit short…”

“I highly doubt there are two ‘Byun Baekhyun’s in the humanities department. Not exactly a common name.” Amber adds somewhat fatalistically, like she just got the news of a death in the family.

“Yeah, thought so.” Meanwhile, Jongdae looks torn between finding the situation terrible and hilarious. “Well, I guess it’s better knowing this earlier than later. You see, Yixing…” he says yet again, and Yixing is listening. “That guy is kind of famous.”

Yixing blinks.

Amber sighs. “Just tell him the whole story, Jongdae.”

Jongdae tells him.

 

For starters, basic information. Byun Baekhyun is twenty-one years old, bloodtype O, a Taurus, and a law student. He hails from Gyeonggi, but has been studying in Seoul since high school. His favorite food is pork belly and matcha bubble tea (not combined), and the food he doesn’t like is plums. In high school, he was in the volleyball team, and was allegedly a good player despite being short and missing a lot of practice. His close family includes parents, grandparents from both sides, a couple of cousins, and an older brother.

The problem is: he’s an Omega, and a fervent defender of bioequality. 

At that, Yixing frowns. “So are we.”

“Byun Baekhyun is at the frontline,” Amber notes. “As an omega, of course he’s more affected by alphacentrism and bionormativity, so it makes sense for him to be more engaged, but he really goes the extra mile with it.”

“ _I_ can’t compare with that guy, and you know how I am,” Jongdae remarks solemnly. “He founded an intersectional bioequality study group that got really huge, and now they even hold annual events with other groups from Korea. It’s probably what made our school get rep as an equalitarian institution.”

“Oooh,” Yixing goes starry-eyed. “Cool…”

“I suppose,” Jongdae frowns sadly, not satisfied with the effect his explanation is causing on his airhead alpha roommate. “You understand what’s the problem though? With you fancying him?”

“Eh?” Yixing snaps back to reality. Amber and Jongdae stare at him expectantly. “He sounds like a nice person.”

Two sighs in unison. “It’s not that. He’s an equalitist, and you’re an alpha. Equalitists hate alphas—”

“Equalitists are _distrustful_ of alphas,” Jongdae corrects her sternly.

“Reasonably so,” Amber shrugs. “Alphas are dickhats. Not you, Yixing, but he doesn’t know that.”

“I see,” Yixing hums, at last focusing for long enough to realize the matter in hands. As long as it’s platonic, it’s fine, but if he tries to approach Baekhyun, even if just for friendship at first, it won’t be easy to make him open up. Equalitists are, indeed, distrustful of alphas. And Yixing is not sure he can compromise himself to keep this platonic. 

So now, he has two options. One, schedule a doctor appointment and get on suppressants ASAP. Two… 

“I got it,” he gives his roommates a reassuring smile, getting up from the table. “I’m gonna lie down for a bit.”

“Okay,” Amber nods. Both of them are perfectly reassured. Or seem to be so, at least. 

As Yixing closes the door to his room behind him, a little wobbly on his feet, he thinks of a rough outline for his action plan. His roommates would certainly disapprove of Yixing’s decision – his decision to woo Baekhyun – but hey: you never know until you try, right? Maybe, with some effort, Yixing can prove Baekhyun he is not a dickhat, and steal his heart in the process.

He falls asleep as soon as he touches the mattress, the suppressant catching up to him, and sleeps a dreamless slumber.

 

 

Following Baekhyun around the campus is, in fact, much easier than Yixing initially thought. He thought he’d be doing a lot of walking in circles – the university isn’t the biggest he’s been to, but it’s not any close to being small – and would miss the target for the first days, but it’s like he’s grown a sixth sense overnight, which helps him… feel, so to say, in which direction to go to find Baekhyun. Kind of playing hot-and-cold with a voice in his head. Ironic for someone who usually has a less-than-stellar sense of direction; imprinting sure works wonders. 

The first day Yixing looks for him is a Wednesday. He finds him circa half past one in the afternoon, after some minutes of walking, having lunch at a cheap in-campus vegan place.

Yixing has already eaten, but hey, who doesn’t love an early brunch? Their fruit salad does look quite good. In the pictures. Which are probably stock photography, but that’s beside the point.

They don’t talk. Baekhyun doesn’t even look his way.

On Thursday, Yixing can’t find him until their shared Sociology class, which once again flies past his head like dust as he thinks about Baekhyun the entire time. Afterwards, Baekhyun goes to a small café, where he orders a macchiato on-the-go and quickly leaves. Yixing is three people behind him, and orders a chamomile tea, because he doesn’t like coffee. When he’s finally freed from the confines of the café, Baekhyun is already nowhere to be seen, so Yixing reluctantly goes home.

On Friday, Yixing doesn’t find him in the morning, but, when he comes back from lunch for his afternoon classes, he finds him in the library, easily spotted from the entrance, looking for something among the rows of books. 

Truth to be told, Yixing is not a very good actor, specially under stressful situations like this – his heartbeat falters, his breath catches in his throat – but he does his best to fake innocence and nonchalance as he walks through the glass doors, making a discreet beeline to the row where Baekhyun is. Criminology, says the sign. How cool! Yixing glances at the books and pretends to be enraptured by all those titles he can barely understand – always, however, watching Baekhyun from the corner of his eye, almost involuntarily, following the way he browses the books and frowns.

Maybe he could offer help with something? Anything? Just so Baekhyun would look his way? He picks up a random book, contemplating his options – but then he notices something.

Baekhyun is trying to reach a book in one of the upper rows… and, remember, he’s a bit short, so he can’t reach it properly, even though he’s tiptoeing and even jumping a little. It’s Yixing’s chance! He hastily puts the book in place, and walks towards Baekhyun.

“Hi,” he greets, and it very obviously startles Baekhyun quite bad. “Uh, sorry.” Yixing looks at the shelf. “Which one is it?”

“Ah… that one, _Pathology of Prejudice_ , by Yang Seungho? Black cover?” Baekhyun points, and Yixing screams internally. His voice is so beautiful!, is what he screams. “Can you… reach it…?”

Yixing looks up again, trying to play it cool, and hesitates. Hm. He has underestimated how high that book would be. Or actually, he had forgotten he himself is also a bit on the short side. The height diference between him and Baekhyun is almost invisible. “I guess.” He tiptoes. Not quite there… but if he jumps… “Hold on.”

He does jump, and manages to fish the book – but he also makes the shelf wobble dangerously on its feet.

“Holy shit,” Baekhyun hisses, and both of them back up, assuming defensive positions. The shelf, however, stays in place. A lone book falls to the floor, splattering wide open with a pitiful sound. Once the danger has passed, Yixing realizes how he positioned himself – with an arm across Baekhyun’s figure, protecting him instead of himself.

He hands the book over. “Sorry,” he says sheepishly. “Here it is.” And he also picks up the fallen book, for good measure. His heart hammers incessantly inside his chest.

“Haha, no problem. Thank you.” Baekhyun smiles. He _smiles_. And then he walks away, leaving Yixing alone with himself.

Yixing almost runs laps around the campus to calm himself down.

On Saturday, nothing really happens.

On Sunday, Yixing doesn’t have any classes or anything to do besides studying at home, so he sits on the floor by the living room couch and tries to catch up with the Sociology stuff he’s missed this week. He knows it’s not gonna be of much use, as he has plenty difficulty with making sense of written Korean, therefore won’t absorb as much content as he would if he had paid attention to the classes, but it’s better than nothing. 

He's sitting there studying, having made about ten percent of progress, when Jongdae storms into the living room with a resolute expression on his face.

“Let's go out,” he proposes. 

“Pass,” is what Amber, who's sprawled on the couch playing videogames, simply says.

Jongdae groans, and turns to Yixing. “Let's go out.”

“Where?” Yixing is a little seduced by the idea.

“Anywhere. Let's grab some coffee or something. I have to read three chapters of a book about gushi poetry and I don't want to,” Jongdae confesses unabashedly. Yixing nods, pondering whether he should follow Jongdae's example and ditch studying for once. “Come on, goody two-shoes. Choose me over your sociology shit for once.”

“Okay. Let's go,” Yixing gives in. He does choose his schoolwork over his friends way too often. 

And so both of them go out, set for a coffee shop near the university, chitchatting about mundane things. Their apartment itself is two blocks away from the outskirts of the campus, so it's a short, uneventful walk. 

That is, until they reach the coffee shop. Because, just as they're getting there – just as Yixing feels an out-of-context pull of excitement in his chest – Baekhyun walks out of the shop, a medium cup of coffee in his hands.

Yixing almost chokes.

Jongdae has no visible reaction.

But Baekhyun stops. “Oh! Kim Jongdae, right?”

“... yes?” Jongdae blinks. Yixing's eyes dart rapidly between the two of them. 

“We took a Text Composition class together.” Baekhyun walks towards them. He's close. He shakes Jongdae's hand. Yixing doesn't breathe.

“Yeah, I remember you. Baekhyun, right?,” Jongdae eases himself into the conversation. “Man, that class was a pain.”

“At least it was easy,” Baekhyun laughs. And then, because destiny couldn't resist torturing Yixing a little more, Baekhyun turns to face him. Recognition dawns upon him. “Hey, I saw you at the library one of these days!” He turns back to Jongdae. “You two are friends?”

“Ah, yes, this is Zhang Yixing, my roommate,” Jongdae pats Yixing on the back. And even so, the oxygen standing still in his lungs doesn't move one bit. He tries smiling. “He's from China, just recently moved to Korea. You guys must take some classes together, he's in Social Studies.”

“Oh.” Baekhyun glances at Yixing again. Yixing _still can't breathe_. “I don't think we do? In this term at least...”

“Sociology.” It comes out completely choked. Yixing clears his throat, turning red from embarrassment. “We... take Sociology together.”

“Do we? That's nice,” Baekhyun says politely. “Well, I better get going. So much to study, so little time.”

“Don't even mention it,” Jongdae breathes out, sympathetic. Baekhyun chuckles.

“See you guys around then,” is how he bids goodbye. And then he's gone, like a gust of wind. 

Yixing's lungs finally move.

Jongdae turns to him. Then, he laughs loudly. “Holy crap, you're _purple_.”

“You knew Baekhyun-sshi and didn't tell me,” Yixing counter-attacks poignantly.

“Uh, I sort of gave you the complete overview on his existence, and you thought I didn't know him?” Jongdae fires back.

“But you took classes with him!”

“Class. It was once. He only remembers me because I was the only beta there.” Jongdae rolls his eyes. “It's no big deal. Come on, let's go in, we look like idiots arguing outside.”

Yixing complies, still a bit suspicious, but he understands the situation. As member of a minority among minorities, Jongdae stands out wherever he goes; he's one of the very few betas who make it to higher education to begin with. He's friends with a lot of bioequality activists from their uni. It's not that strange that Baekhyun remembers him, in the end.

But then Yixing's brain does an U-turn. Wait. Wait a minute.

Baekhyun remembered him too.

Baekhyun now knows his name!

And that they take Sociology together!

Yixing is slowly but steadily making progress with his plan!

 

 

In a very anticlimactic fashion, nothing else happens for almost two weeks. Yixing still follows Baekhyun around campus as discreetly as he can, but no chances for interaction arise, nor does Baekhyun notice him around – not even at class. And speaking of class, Yixing still can’t pay attention to Sociology classes, at all. It’s starting to worry him a little. He feels like, sooner or later, his inability to focus on anything but Baekhyun when the aforementioned man is in the room will turn itself against him.

‘Sooner or later’ turns out to be sooner.

“Hello, class! Is everyone ready for today?” The teacher asks as he enters the room, and the way how he says that, plus the class’ unenthusiastic but unsurprised reaction, alarm Yixing very much. “Good. Since all of you certainly read the email, I trust you to already have everything set to start right away.”

Yixing never reads emails. He’s in a pinch.

“Mister,” a timid voice rises from the back of the class, from a small, frail-looking girl. “I didn’t get the email.”

“Oh, you’re still having that issue,” the teacher grimaces, and Yixing doesn’t know what they’re talking about, but he sees hope in the horizon. “Well, in case someone else didn’t get it either: today we’ll be discussing representation of minorities in mass media. You’re supposed to gather in trios composed of one alpha, one omega, and one beta, but…” 

But there are only two betas in that class, a class made of a little over thirty people. All heads turn to the aforementioned betas, who are sitting next to each other, as per usual.

“I already have a group,” one of them says, looking somewhat apologetic.

“So do I…” the other adds, and some people sigh in disappointment. One of these people is the teacher.

“As I thought… well, the rest of you could use this situation to debate. For now, just group in—”

The door swings open with violence and great noise, and Yixing swells like a helium balloon, because he can tell who arrived without even raising his eyes. Hormones can be creepy sometimes.

Baekhyun stands at the door, a bit surprised by the stillness that his grand entrance has caused. “Good afternoon…?”

“Gracious, Mr. Byun,” the teacher deadpans. “Truly gracious.”

“Well thank you, Mr. Kim.” Baekhyun grins, curtsying in delicate mockery. “Sorry to interrupt. I’ll retreat to my seat now.”

“Good. As I was saying before Your Majesty came through…” the classroom resonates with a ripple of laughter, but, for some reason, Yixing doesn’t find that very funny. “In face of this crisis, you could group in groups of four, but that’d defeat the personal aspect of the project, so just form alpha-omega pairs. _But_ ,” a finger raised, for emphasis, “no funny business. Debates must be kept strictly in theme. Understood?”

Non-committal sound of agreement from the students. The teacher looks disbelieving, but visibly gives in, and sits down at his desk; it’s the sign everyone needed to start a minor chaos. Amidst assorted shouts and the loud scraping of desks against the classroom floor, Yixing feels a bit overwhelmed, specially because he doesn’t have anyone to call for, since he doesn’t know any of his classmates. Well… except for Baekhyun, but he’s not that bold. Yet.

It’s kind of automatic: Yixing thinks of Baekhyun, and his eyes immediately seek him. Usually, Yixing’s eyes find Baekhyun’s back, his shoulders relaxed, a glimpse of a neutral, slightly distracted face that makes him look like an angel. (To Yixing, at least.) This time, however, he sees a thing that sends a jolt through his entire body – when he looks at Baekhyun, Baekhyun is also looking straight at him.

As their eyes meet, Baekhyun smiles. He then gets to his feet, and, dragging his desk behind him, walk over to where Yixing is seated.

Yixing watches all of it in a frozen daze.

“Wanna pair up?” Baekhyun asks with an absolutely radiant smile, brighter and purer than the sun. (Again, according to Yixing.) “I saw you sitting still and presumed you don’t know anyone here.”

“Oh—I, yeah, I,” Yixing professes eloquently, trying to blink his way back into reality. “Uh, sure.”

“Thanks.” If Baekhyun thinks anything of Yixing’s stuttering, he doesn’t say it. He just pulls his desk closer, so it bumps against Yixing’s a little, and sits down. Right there, next to Yixing. Close enough for Yixing to see his face in 4K. “I don’t know any of these people either. We’d probably end up together anyway. The Leftovers.” Baekhyun snorts. “Sounds like a sick rock band.”

Yixing’s brain might be going through a minor short-circuit, but he can still laugh. He laughs a bit too loudly, actually, but Baekhyun looks pleased by that, so all is good. He’s smiling as he scans around the room.

“Hm, everyone got their own groups already. Looks like it’s just you and me… uh…”

Yixing just blinks and stares. After a moment of awkwardness, he realizes Baekhyun is trying to remember his name. “Zhang Yixing,” he supplies helpfully. 

“Right. Yixing-sshi. Sorry, I’m awful with names.” He clicks his tongue, presumably at himself. “Kim Jongdae said you’re his roommate?”

“Yes,” Yixing nods. “And… just Yixing is fine.”

“Oh, okay. I see. Uh, it’s kind of invasive for me to ask, so sorry, but what do you identify as?”

Again some confusion from Yixing’s side. Again, some blinking. And again an awkward atmosphere takes over between them until Yixing finally understands what he means.

“Ah! I’m an alpha,” he rushes a bit with the answer, trying to undo that uncomfortableness. “I’m sorry. I’m not very good at Korean yet.”

“Oh, no, don’t worry, it’s me who asked a weird question out of the blue,” Baekhyun brushes it off casually. “This works just fine them. Since we’re supposed to be in alpha-omega pairs.”

Yixing just nods. Baekhyun looks at him with curiosity, and his eyes slowly set Yixing on fire, like a magnifying glass would to an ant, or a paper sheet if you’re not into this kind of cruelty. Yixing needs to say something. “S-so,” is how he starts off, staring at his desk for something to make a conversation about. He sees his notebook. Ah. Right. They’re supposed to be studying. “Uh, minorities in mass media.”

“Hm?” Baekhyun frowns, then looks at the whiteboard. “Oh.” He looks surprised. “Right. We have an assignment. Wow, I completely forgot.”

Yixing chuckles. “I didn’t know about it,” he confesses, and Baekhyun chuckles.

“You’re lucky, though. This isn’t anything that requires previous studying. Just looking around and having half a brain will do.” Seemingly in deep thought, Baekhyun leans back and crosses his arms, contemplating the void. Yixing stares. He knows he’s staring, but he can’t stop. “What should we be discussing, though? Historical lack of diversity? Erasure? Stereotypes? Possible solutions?”

“Uh,” Yixing tries to stop staring and not to make super heart eyes at him because, holy mother, he sounds so smart in such a relaxed, natural way. “All of these?”

“Ugh.” Baekhyun’s reaction is the opposite of what Yixing expected – he rolls his eyes and slumps. “I’m already tired. I hate this subject.”

Oh. Yixing frowns sadly. “I like it…”

“It’s fun the first time around, I guess, but this is my third time taking it,” confesses Baekhyun, propping his head on his hands, a grimace contorting his face. “Got this super jerkface scumbag teacher for the past two semesters who hated my guts because I called him out on some _jokes_ ,” air quotes, “he made in class.”

“Ah.” Yixing made a face. 

“Yeah. What an idiot. Anyway, let’s do this. Do we have to write anything down?”

Yixing shrugs. Baekhyun grins. Yixing dies inside, but he doesn’t show. “Let’s just not, then. So, Yixing, what do you think about systematic oppression through mass media?”

 

 

When Yixing comes home, he bumps into Amber in his way in and doesn’t even notice, too lost in cloud nine to care.

Amber, however, startles and jumps back. “Wow. Wow there, buddy,” Amber backs off from Yixing as he enters the apartment. “You _need_ to go to the doctor.”

“Hm?” Yixing asks vaguely, toeing off his shoes absent-mindedly, a dreamy smile on his face. “Why?”

“Because you reek. Oh my god, seriously,” is what Amber answers, scrunching up her nose, and it’s rather telling about the current status of Yixing’s mind that he doesn’t even care about the remark. “Your pheromones are out of wack. How did people at uni not suffocate? How did _you_ not suffocate?”

“Not everyone has your nose, Amber,” Yixing hears Jongdae’s voice coming from the general direction of the living room. Yep, there he is, abandoning whatever he was reading on the couch and walking up to Yixing. “I can’t smell anything, actually, and Yixing told me once that he can’t either.”

“You can’t?” Amber frowns, and Yixing nods, still staring into space rather than looking at anyone in the room. “That’s rare. Alphas usually have good sense of smell.”

“I think all evidence points towards the fact that Yixing isn’t your regular alpha-next-door,” Jongdae jokes with an acid smile. He then catches Yixing by his arm and pulls. “Sit down and tell us what happened.”

The three of them relocate to the couch; Yixing is led with ease, because he’s not one hundred percent in the scene yet. His mind has landed on the moon, his thoughts are floating in zero-G.

“Yixing. Focus.” Jongdae slaps him on the chest rather violently. Yixing comes back to Earth, startled, and belatedly rubs the attacked spot with a slightly pained expression. “What happened? Why are your pheromones, according to reliable sources, ‘out of wack’ right now?”

“Hm? I don’t know,” Yixing confesses truthfully.

“It has something to do with the imprinting, that’s for sure,” Amber points out. “Did something good happen today?”

“Oh! Ooh.” Yixing is enlightened. His memories come back, his vague smile come back, and he’s flying back to the moon. In his mind, the many new sides of Baekhyun that he got to witness in the class come back to him like a corny movie’s flashback scene. “Hm. At Sociology class. We had a group assignment…”

“You got into Baekhyun’s group?” Jongdae fills the blank. Yixing nods, and Jongdae whistles. “Some luck you have, Yixing. Not only because you’re bonkers for this guy, he’s also really smart. I bet you’ll get a good grade for this. How did you do it though?”

“How I got in his group?” Jongdae nods affirmatively. “We were the leftovers,” Yixing explains. “He doesn’t know anyone in the class.”

“Oh,” Jongdae frowns.

“Well, that explains it,” Amber comments.

“It was just the two of us.” Yixing tries to bite down his smile, but he can’t, so he lowers his head. “He was nice to me. We talked. And, when the class ended, he invited me to his study group.”

“Oho,” Amber raised her eyebrows. “Score! Strictly platonic, but still.”

“Pft. Don’t get so glad for him,” Jongdae retorts. “He invites anyone who has a positive opinion on bionormativity to his group. Doesn’t mean anything. Sorry, Yixing,” he adds, but Yixing shrugs.

“I’m happy with that. I’m sure it’ll be fun.” He doesn’t mention it being a huge step in his wooing plans. He doesn’t know whether his roommates think he has given up or not, and he’d rather not bring up the subject, lest they lecture him again. “Have you been invited, Jongdae?”

“Yeah, once. I didn’t go, though.” Jongdae makes a face. “This kind of group makes me uncomfortable. Either they don’t know shit about beta oppression or they treat me as some kind of rare creature and stare at me all the time. Not the way I want to fight the system.”

“Oh.”

A brief moment of silence. Then, Amber goes, “suppressants?”

“I feel fine,” Yixing argues.

“Tell me when you suddenly don’t then,” Amber merely says, getting up and leaving the living room. “Oh, and you might want to get some next time you have Sociology or go to the study group. Omegas supposedly have really good noses too, and, the way you are now, you have your feelings written all over your face. I suppose you don’t want that.”

Yixing shudders. “I don’t,” he agrees. It’s too soon. “Thank you.”

 

The study group’s meetings happened every Monday, five PM, at any vacant classroom they could find. Baekhyun had asked for Yixing’s number, but Yixing’s old phone had died a couple of days after he arrived Korea and he had yet to buy a new one, so they had to settle for having someone fetch Yixing at the entrance of the Humanities department. 

The fact Baekhyun had _asked him for his number_ and he _couldn’t give him_ haunted Yixing’s thoughts for days. 

But so Monday comes, and with it comes a subtle prickling of anxiety in Yixing’s stomach. The feeling is only partially related to the fact he’s about to meet Baekhyun; it also has to do with meeting and talking to more people on campus other than his roommates. What kind of people would the study group members be? Yixing recalls what Jongdae had said, about equalitists being distrustful of alphas – what if the members are distrustful of him? 

What if they think Yixing is a dickhat?

He worries on and on through the day. In fact, even after he arrives at the meeting – actually, even after the meeting _ends_ , after a pleasant hour of debating a discrimination episode that happened in-campus on Friday – Yixing is still sort of worrying about it. He looks around the classroom, stealing a glance at every group member to see if he can detect anything. No one’s looking at him. He lets out a sigh of relief.

“How was it?” asks a voice coming from his side. When Yixing turns around, he attests that the one asking is Minseok, the short, slight Bioengineering student who had guided him to the classroom that first time. They had made pleasant chat in their way to the meeting, and so, Yixing feels a little close to him already.

“Really nice,” Yixing replies sincerely. “I learned a lot.”

“You said you were part of a group like this in your previous university, right?” 

“Yeah, but…” But the study group he had in Beijing was weird and disjointed. It was unofficial, had few members, no set time for meetings, and people mostly didn’t know nearly enough about social issues to have any discussions with depth. “In China, people don’t know as much about this… it’s a very conservative country.”

“Well, so is Korea,” Minseok retorts with a bitter smile.

“Sorry to butt in, but,” a third voice chimes from Yixing’s left side; it’s Seungwan, another member of the group. “I heard Chinese universities still restrict certain majors to either alphas or omegas, is that true?”

“Most of them do,” Yixing admits, nodding sadly. “Some don’t, but those split alpha classes and omega classes apart. My country has a long way to go.”

“Here I am with the refreshments!” Baekhyun voice booms from the front door, hitting Yixing like a brick to the gut. During the meeting, Yixing had done his absolute best not to daze away into Baekhyunland, but that was unsurprisingly proven to be quite a task, specially when it was Baekhyun who was talking about historic oppression in that beautiful, crystalline voice of his. When Baekhyun dashed out of the room right as the meeting ended, Yixing thought he had gone home, which allowed him to relax at last, albeit with a little irrational sadness. Well, so much for that… “They were out of iced decaf so I bought iced tea for you, Seungwan.”

“Good enough,” Seungwan says, a little resigned “Thank you, oppa.”

“No probs.” After sliding everyone their drinks, Baekhyun rushes to Yixing’s side. “So, newbie. How was it?” A pause. “Wait. You didn’t order anything, did you?”

“I… didn’t,” Yixing answers with a little difficulty.

“Oh, okay, I thought I forgot yours for a moment.”

“Ahaha, no.” The laugh sounds so robotic that Yixing wants to hide under the desk. He’s awfully aware of Baekhyun’s body warmth, and the people around them, and the fact he took the suppressants several hours ago and oh god what if they already wore off? “It was fun. I, uh—I’ll come more often. And… and try to bring Jongdae with me.”

“Oh, Kim Jongdae from Literature?” Minseok perks up. “You’re friends with him?”

“He lives with him. They’re roomies,” Baekhyun answers for Yixing, sounding somewhat pleased. “Anyway, I’m glad you liked it here. And I’m glad I got to talk to you! I’ve been seeing you around quite often, it’s nice to know you’re a chill person.”

Yixing’s blood goes cold.

A snort resonates across the room, coming from Krystal, apparently the quietest member of the group. “You’ve been seeing him around often? Are you stalking him, Baekhyun?”

“Me? Of course not,” Baekhyun feigns outrage in his voice. “It was just a series of coincidences,” his eyes are back on Yixing, and Yixing feels cold sweat form on his forehead, even though Baekhyun’s eyes, and his voice, are perfectly neutral.

He knows. He might know. Does he know? Yixing feels ready to spring up and run all the way back to Changsha. He’s scared, and starting to feel very, very ill; it seems like he has reached his limit.

“Yeah, haha, true,” he tries to say in a relaxed manner, but it comes even more robotic than the first time. He’s doomed. And about to throw up. He needs an excuse. “Ah, I,” cough, “I have to go home now. Jongdae… I promised to Jongdae I… yeah.”

“Oh, okay,” Yixing hears Minseok saying, and the others say something, but it’s like Yixing is underwater now, his ears buzzing, all sound distant and muffled. He does his best to coherently say goodbye to everyone, and not to trip over his own legs on his way out. _You’re overreacting_ , he tells his body. _Shut up_ , his body tells him, _and walk faster_.

He doesn’t remember anything from the walk back home.

 

 

The scare has pretty much worn off when Yixing finally arrives home. Unfortunately, so have the suppressants. When he walks into the living room, Amber chokes on her noodles.

“I swear to God,” she groans, coughing breathlessly. “You _need_ to go to the doctor. This isn’t normal.”

“Help,” is all Yixing says.

“Okay, okay, I got you.” In all but seconds, Amber is sprinting to her bedroom, then coming back with the suppressants in hands. As she’s coming back, she almost runs over Jongdae, who’s emerging from his room with a glum expression on. 

“Sorry,” she says quickly, but he doesn’t seem to pay her any mind.

“Hey,” he says to Yixing instead, his hands in thefront pocket of his parka. “Catch this.”

Needless to say, poor Yixing doesn’t catch that, and whatever Jongdae flinged at him hits him on the cheek with a loud thud. It is very painful.

“Holy shit I’m sorry,” Jongdae immediately rushes to him, half worried, half laughing. Yixing rubs the injured spot, glaring at his roommate, who starts laughing harder. “I probably shouldn’t have done that, it was dangerous.”

“It hurt,” Yixing mumbles.

“I’ll get you some ice.”

“I have it,” Amber announces, emerging from the kitchen with a glass of water, the medicine, and a cold thermobag. She shoves all itens into Yixing’s hands. “Here. What did you do to him?”

“I threw a cellphone at his face,” Jongdae announces, cackling and sounding completely guilt-free. Yixing takes the meds, drinks the water, and puts the ice on his cheek, still glaring at Jongdae like a hurt kitten. “It was for a good cause though. I was gonna tell you I’m giving you my old phone.”

The pain is gone. Yixing perks up. “Really?”

“Yeah. I bought a new one but this one is still in good condition. Or was, before I threw it at you,” he adds, picking the phone up from the floor and examining it. It looks alright, at least in the outside. “It’s not right that you don’t have a phone, honestly. You even need it for uni stuff sometimes. So here. I got you a number too.”

This time, Jongdae hands the phone over like a normal human being. Yixing respectuflly accepts it with both hands, looking up at Jongdae with his eyes gleaming. “Thank you.” 

“Now you can give Baekhyun your number,” Jongdae leered, wiggling his eyebrows, which made Yixing turn bright red all over.

“I thought you wanted me to give up on him,” he says, hiding his face and the grin that had involuntarily formed on his lips. “Didn’t you say that?”

“Well, yeah, but we knew you weren’t going to give up,” Amber points out from her seat, having gone back to eating dinner. “That’s how imprinting is. Until it fades away, it’s pointless to try to fight it.”

Yixing feels a little relieved. It feels like he has got ridden of a weight on his shoulders, now that his roommates and best friends know his true intentions. He’s feeling well and giddy, despite his head and bones still hurting from the previous unwellness, when Amber’s words resonate in his head and he notices something.

Wait.

Fade away?

 

 

It’d be nice to say that, after Yixing announces he’s now in posse of a mobile phone and he and Baekhyun exchange numbers, they start exchanging text messages every day and grow closer. It’d be nice, but it wouldn’t be true. After the exchange, Baekhyun doesn’t send him any texts before Monday, when he simply sends the location of the study group meeting without so much of a ‘hi’. Moreover, it seems to have been a mass text. As for Yixing, he can’t bring himself to text Baekhyun first, because he doesn’t know what to say.

Sometimes, at night, Yixing lies on his bed and stares at Baekhyun’s contact info page on his phone, and just stares and stares. It has nothing on it besides the number and the name ‘baekhyun’, without any ornaments. He can’t even bring himself to type anything – he just stares. And staring, he falls asleep. And that’s it.

His wooing plan seems to have hit a slump, and he doesn’t know what to do.

The group study is fun, strictly speaking, but it’s gone bittersweet to Yixing. On one side, it’s nice to know more people in campus, specially people who think like him, and it’s super nice that he gets to spend time in the same room as Baekhyun. On the other… Yixing’s longing is getting out of control, and the fact that he can’t seem to get closer to Baekhyun in any way, both because of his own incompetence and Baekhyun’s oblivion, is starting to sting more than before.

Actually, this might be him getting paranoid, but he’s under the impression Baekhyun doesn’t like him. In the meetings and afterwards, he only speaks to Yixing to ask if he wants anything from the café, and, even then, he rarely does it verbally. At classes, they don’t talk at all. In their free time, they have met here and there in the library and such – seems like Yixing’s radar has been acting up again – but at those times, Baekhyun gives him a nod of acknowledgement at most. And Yixing can’t help but think of causes for that; when he does, he always reaches the same point. 

Maybe he knows.

But just playing guessing games with himself ultimately sums up to nothing, and he walks in circles with his own heart for a whole month.

And then, when the following month comes, and Yixing starts seriously considering going to a doctor like Amber had advised, Baekhyun doesn’t show up to a Sociology class.

He seems to be the only one who noticed. At first, he just thought Baekhyun was going to arrive late, as he does more often than not, with a witty joke and a brilliant smile and a hundred pieces of Yixing’s heart in his pocket. But the time goes by, the teacher’s lecture goes on, and his usual seat remains vacant, as well as the door remains shut. It’s the first time he’s been absent since Yixing first saw him. Come to think of it, he had been absent for the first two weeks, hadn’t he?

The teacher is handing out some graded assignments. Yixing just barely remembers what that’s about, which makes him really scared to take a look at his grade. Maybe it’s time to worry about tanking Sociology rather than why his classmate missed one class. Even if said classmate is beautiful and funny and generally amazing and sends his hormones into haywire every single time.

“Byun Baekhyun,” the teacher calls, shooting a glance at where Baekhyun sould be sitting. When he sees the seat vacant, he frowns, but not in a surprised way. “Not here, huh. Well, can someone take it for him?”

Silence. Yixing looks around. It’s really strange how, in the campus and the study group, Baekhyun seems like a very popular person, but, in this class, people almost seem to avoid him. The teacher grows impatient. “Anyone?”

“I’ll take it,” Yixing blurts out before he can stop himself. He was just… unsettled by the silence, by the constrained glances his classmates were exchanging. He was definitely growing paranoid.

“Okay. Here, take yours too,” the teacher says when Yixing walks up to him, and Yixing is mildly surprised that he remembers his name. “And, if you could, can you also take him the prints from today’s class? He’ll need to read them before Tuesday.”

“Sure,” Yixing nods, and receives extra copies of the prints. The teacher nods in silent gratitude, and Yixing goes back to his seat, a bit numb from what he has done. He even forgets to check his grade. His mind is occupied with only one thought.

That’s his chance.

While the teacher is distracted handing out the rest of the assignments, Yixing discreetly pulls out his phone and opens the messaging app. Baekhyun’s name glares at him from the bottom of the list, below a sole message to both Minseok and Seungwan, from when he added their numbers, a couple personal messages with Jongdae and Amber, and an ever-lively chatroom with the two. There are sixty unread messages waiting for him in said chatroom, but he pays it no mind. He has more urgent matters to attend right now.

Taking a deep breathe, he taps Baekhyun’s name.

 _hello baekhyun sshi_ , he starts off by typing. Now what? _there’s some stuff from sociology_ … that doesn’t sound grammatically right. _i got your assignment back from the sociology teacher._ That sounds better. _and there’s a text we need to read for the next class_.

Now comes the hard part.

_can i come over?_

There. There it is. After that’s done, his finger hovers over the enter button, quivering, hesitant, as his eyes reread the message again and again. There’s a typo in ‘next class’, but he doesn’t notice. He’s fretting.

But he needs to seize this chance, or it might never come around again, and he’ll get stuck in this one-sided thing for an undefined amount of time. So he takes the plunge, and hits ‘send’.

For a good half an hour, nothing happens. He eventually checks his grade, and surprise, it wasn’t actually that bad. He doesn’t check Baekhyun’s, though. He feels that would make Baekhyun hate him even more, even though he’d probably never find out about it.

Yixing glances at his phone again. No replies. He frowns; maybe Baekhyun is seriously sick? The teacher dismisses the class, and, while everyone starts packing up to leave, Yixing briefly contemplates calling him. Yeah, he should probably do that, is what he argues against his nervous heartbeat. Just a call, to make sure he got the text. He already stutters every time he talks to Baekhyun in person, so what difference would it make if he stuttered on the phone?

However, when he finally musters up enough courage to call, no one picks up. He tries dialing it again, clumsily tidying his desk with one hand: same result. Third and last try: same result. He frowns, just barely noticing he was left alone in the classroom as he walks out. Now, what should he do?

He glances again at the app.

 _hi hyung_ , he starts typing onto Minseok’s window. The ‘hyung’ usage was requested by Minseok himself, who seemed to think Yixing was excessively formal with everyone. _i need to hand some things to baekhyun sshi, but i texted and he didn’t reply. what should i do?_

In a stark contrast with Yixing’s previous texting experience, Minseok replies almost immediately.

_He didn’t go to class today?_

_yeah_ , Yixing replies, almost colliding with a trashcan in the hallway.

_Hm, ok. I’m gonna send you his address, just a sec._

Yixing panics a bit. As much as that’s what he wanted, his heart might not be ready after all. _but maybe he’s sick_ , he argues.

 _If it’s something important, he won’t mind. He needs to study harder anyway. Lol_ , is what Minseok replies, completely unshaken. He then sends a location, which happens to be not very far from Yixing’s own apartment, and adds, _Wish him well for me_.

Yixing is, at the same time, incredibly grateful and incredibly scared, but he still answers with, _sure ♥_.

 

 

You see, it is true that Yixing isn’t very much like the alpha stereotypes you see around in the media and such. He’s not cool and composed, nor sharp-tongued and aggressive. He can’t immediately tell who’s an alpha and who’s an omega and who’s a beta, and he doesn’t instinctively feel the need to fight other alphas for dominance. He also doesn’t think he has a particularly big dick. Most of all, he doesn’t have the sense of smell that everyone seems to have – he was often told he has a ‘beta nose’ in school, because he just couldn’t sense pheromones in the air like his peers, which seemed to make him lesser than other alphas in a way.

He never minded any of that. In fact, since the imprinting, he has briefly contemplated how his life would be much better if he was a beta. That’s a fallacy, of course, as betas are a minority among minorities and suffer proportional oppression, but his remaining typically alpha parts seemed inconvenient when paired up with his ‘lacking’ areas. 

For instance, right now. Right now, Yixing is standing at Baekhyun’s door. He has just rung the doorbell, clutching the papers he has to give to Baekhyun with a bit of unnecessary strength, hands clammy, heart pounding as he hears a faint ‘coming!’ from inside, followed by footstep sounds. He’s giddy, his legs are shaking, and he’s having to take deep breaths every thirty seconds. He has never felt that way. Ever.

And then, when the door opens and Baekhyun appears at the doorstep, Yixing has another first-time experience. He smells something. He smells a scent in the air, sweet and spicy like vanilla and almonds, a scent the tells him, with urgency and certainty and almost some brutality, that he _needs_ to have sex with the person standing in front of him, _immediately_.

He stares at Baekhyun, who’s uncomposed like Yixing has never seen him before. His hair is messy, his cheeks are pink. The big, old T-shirt he’s wearing is a bit tousled, hanging off his left shoulder a bit, exposing more skin than a normal T-shirt would.

Oh my God.

Baekhyun is in heat.

“I,” Yixing starts off, and his voice crack. His blood is rushing through his body like molten lava, and he hears a faint buzz in his ears, all thanks to that scent. That _scent_. He clears his throat. “I… the teacher asked me to—hand you this.”

“Hm,” is all Baekhyun says as he stares back at Yixing with opaque, tired eyes. “Come in.”

He turns around and walks into the apartment. Yixing feels a little faint, but he forces himself to get a grip, and steps into the apartment, softly closing the door behind his back. What the hell is this late awakening of his alpha senses? Right now, out of all times? He does his best to pretend none of that is happening, and walks towards the couch where Baekhyun is sitting.

“Uh…” With horror, he realizes he’s salivating. He quickly swallows. “I texted you earlier…”

“Oh.” Baekhyun seems to be biting his nails, or maybe just resting his fingers against his lips, and, for some reason, that gesture sets Yixing’s heart ablaze. He glances around the room a bit distractedly, not looking at Yixing. “I don’t know where my phone is.”

“I see.”

Silence. Yixing needs to get out of there; his plan of charming Baekhyun with a gentlemanly visit has backfired horribly, and he’s scared some other weird alpha instinct will decide to pop up out of nowhere to inconvenience him. As of now, his desired line of action is, leave the papers, bid goodbye, and flee. “I’m gonna leave these here then…”

Yixing gestures towards the coffee table that’s located in front of the couch, right in front of Baekhyun’s knees, and gently rests the papers there. He’s then ready to retreat – but something grabs his forearm with mighty strength.

It’s Baekhyun’s hand. His pale, cold hand. His long, slender fingers…

“Wait right there,” Baekhyun commands in a raspy voice, shooting up from his seat to grab Yixing’s collar in a vice grip. It’s all so sudden that Yixing almost topples over him, just barely avoiding the disaster by holding onto the couch’s armrest, although that still results on him hovering over Baekhyun’s body, their faces mere centimeters apart, that sweet smell of sex screaming at Yixing’s libido. Baekhyun’s eyes don’t look that tired anymore; they now gleam with something that could be labeled as malice.

“You want me, right?”

It shoots through Yixing like an arrow to his stomach. He blinks and gapes, dumbfounded. “I…”

“Am I wrong?” Baekhyun dares, pulling him even closer. His hot breath ghosts over Yixing’s lips. “You can’t hide it from me. It’s so obvious. You want me, right?”

Ah, so he knew. And Yixing knew he knew. And yet, this sudden exposure feels absolutely terrifying. “Baekhyun sshi…”

Baekhyun smirks. “You thought you were being stealthy, following me around campus. Staring at me during class. Are you crazy? I could smell you from miles away, Zhang Yixing – I bet everyone else could. You’re so, so obvious.”

“I took suppressants,” Yixing babbles feebly, starting to lose his will to fight the situation. With Baekhyun’s lips so close… but no, he can’t. He can’t! “I… my nose isn’t good.”

“Well, sue your doctor, your suppressants don’t work. And stop lying. I _know_ you can smell me right now.” He pulls Yixing forward again, and oh my God, their lips are touching. Just barely, just a tickle, but the touch is there, scorchingly hot. “Because you’re starting to smell just like me.”

He can’t do this. He can’t do this, but he can’t resist it either – his body has a limit, and it’s reaching it at maximum speed, almost as if drunk in the smell of Baekhyun’s heat. He wants to kiss Baekhyun, and touch him, and everything else, but he _can’t_ , because that’s not how he wanted it to be. This wasn’t on his wooing plans!

“Come here,” Baekhyun beckons, leaning back on the couch and baring his neck. His neck is a smooth expansion of silky skin, as inviting as a ripe peach, as taunting as his dark, hooded eyes. “You want this, don’t you? This is your lucky day. You can have it.”

“Baekhyun sshi,” is really all Yixing can say now, because his mind is a mess, a typhoon of words that don’t make sense. “I… I…”

“What is it? Why are you hesitating?” Baekhyun licks his lips and brings a finger to his exposed neck, tracing a line along its side, from the base of his jawline to the jut of his collarbone. “Don’t be shy, love – take a bite. You’ve been working really hard for it.” He smirks. “And I’m dying for a fuck, whoever it is.”

There it is. The truth that comes forward to slap Yixing on the face.

“Baekhyun sshi, I can’t,” Yixing says firmly, backing off from Baekhyun’s body, then the couch, then the living room itself. “I can’t do this. You’re… vulnerable right now.”

“Do you think I lost my agency just because I’m in heat?” Baekhyun asks dryly, his voice with some bite in it.

“No, not at all.” Yixing tries his best to adjust his collar, finally registering his bag fallen by the side of the couch. “But you misunderstood me,” he explains as he quickly fetches his belongings. “I’m… I’m not that kind of alpha.”

A pause. The air sits still for a while – and then, Baekhyun snickers. “ _Not that kind of alpha_ ,” he mocks. “How prudish. Did you make a chastity vow or something?”

“No, but I don’t just want you. I like you.” Oh, wow. There goes his confession. This is definitely not how he had planned to do it, but, well, it was sort of necessary. “It’s not just my hormones. Part of it is my hormones, but it’s not just that. I don’t want you to think it is.”

The silences after he says anything are getting unbearably long. The atmosphere is getting unbreathable. Almost literally. Yixing’s body is throwing the equivalent to a tantrum because he’s refusing to mate with the source of those tantalizing pheromones.

“I have to go,” he announces, opening the door for himself. “Bye.”

He gets out, shuts the door, and runs for his life.

 

 

“… xing. Yixing,” a voice calls him from the distance. Everything is bright white, like he’s looking directly at the sun. “Yixing, wake up.” He opens his eyes.

What he sees, blurry and washed out, is his roommates faces. Jongdae groans in relief. “Finally,” he says, and Yixing starts gaining awareness of his own surroundings. The living room… a cold sensation on his forehead… oh, he’s probably lying down on the floor… “Yixing, for fuck’s sake: if you feel sick, don’t go to your classes. You’re not gonna die if you miss one.”

“I’ll have to agree with Jongdae there,” Amber follows up, and Yixing is just wondering why her voice sounds so weird when he notices she’s wearing a mask over her nose and mouth. “Are you okay? You passed out at the doorstep, overheating like hell. We’ve been trying to wake you up for almost an hour. Well, I have.”

“I just got home,” Jongdae adds.

“It’s almost like your body just exploded. You’re smelling so much I almost called an ambulance.” Ah, so that’s the reason for the mask. “What the hell happened? If the imprinting is making you that much sick, I know I’m repeating myself, but you really, _really_ should go see a doctor.”

“I’m fine.” Yixing is not fine. “A lot happened.”

“God, you’re stubborn,” Amber complains, rolling her eyes. “Whatever. I’m gonna go get the strongest meds I have. Stay still.”

It’s not like Yixing is dying to move, so he does as told. His entire body feels like… well, like it exploded, and the pieces are scattered all over the carpet. Jongdae is glancing down at him with something akin to sadness.

“This imprinting thing is really fucking you up, huh,” is what he says. Yixing shrugs.

“It’s like heat for alphas,” he explains.

“But longer. And shittier.”

“Heat is worse,” Yixing says a little too quick, a memory of Baekhyun’s disheveled appearance popping up in his mind, and Jongdae narrows his eyes in suspicion. 

“There’s something you’re not telling me.” Jongdae narrows his eyes even further. “But I’m gonna let it pass, because you look like death. But you’re gonna have to spit it out to me when you’re better, okay?”

“I will. Thank you,” Yixing breathes out sincerely.

 

 

The day following the heat-gate is a Friday, and by then Yixing is already feeling well, physically speaking. He attends his classes, despite protests from Jongdae and Amber, and tries not to think too much about heat-gate itself, or Baekhyun in general.

_You want me, right?_

Needless to say, he fails at that.

He almost wants to text Baekhyun about it. He doesn’t know what to say, but… he feels like he needs to discuss it with Baekhyun. He might have confessed, but the impression that some things were left unsaid hangs around Yixing for the whole day, and hinders his concentration a little. If only he was like one of those cool alphas from movies and soap operas, who can have any omega they want swooning and falling to their feet…

Yixing makes a face. Okay, no, he still abhors that stereotype. There’s a reason why he barely watches movies anymore. 

When the weekend comes through, Jongdae tries to take him out for a cup of coffee, but Yixing refuses, as he still has to read the prints for the Sociology class on Tuesday, and study some of the subject he hasn’t really absorbed yet. The fear of tanking the class creeps back to his mind when he wonders how awkward it’ll be when Baekhyun recovers, so he decides to at least do his best for now and pray for good fortune in his future. Above all, what he’s the most scared of is coming back to the study group. In fact – he doesn’t really know if he should.

Maybe he should text Minseok. Or Seungwan. Or Baekhyun? No, not Baekhyun. God, he regrets accepting that phone from Jongdae. Mobile texting is an anxiety nightmare. 

And then Monday comes, and he still hasn’t texted anyone, nor decided whether it’s appropriate for him to keep attending the meetings or not. After all, that _is_ sort of Baekhyun’s study group – he founded it, right? And he probably really hates Yixing now, for a myriad of quite understandable reasons. It’d be rude for Yixing to keep intruding like that, regardless of how sad he feels at the thought of quitting.

At half past four, Yixing gets a text from Minseok, telling the location of the meeting. Should he go? Should he not? Should he text back asking? He probably should text back asking. It’s the most neutral choice, albeit very stressful in itself. 

_hyung_ , he types. _when i went to baekhyun sshi’s apartment_ … but it seems inappropriate to open up about that kind of thing via text, so he backspaces it and types, _can we talk before the meeting?_ , instead.

 _Sure. What’s up? :o_ , is Minseok’s reply.

After some deliberation, Yixing decides to reply with, _i need advice_.

They decide to meet at library, at one of the benches by the entrance. Yixing gets a bit lost on his way, so, when he gets there, Minseok is already waiting for him.

“I’m sorry for being late,” Yixing apologizes immediately.

“Don’t worry, I just got here,” Minseok shrugs it off with a hand gesture, taking a sip of his coffee. Minseok is, apparently, always drinking coffee, at all times. “Sit down. What happened? You do look quite worried.”

Before he can stop himself, Yixing is pouring his heart out for Minseok to hear.

He tells him everything, from the moment he first saw Baekhyun to the latest developments, passing through Amber and Jongdae’s warnings about his doomed ambitions of winning Baekhyun’s heart and how he tried to impress Baekhyun at the library and almost caused a serious accident. His exposé lasts almost fifteen minutes. It’s a painful, embarrassing experience, and it gets even more painful and embarrassing when he finishes it, and Minseok is staring at him with wide, shocked eyes.

“And, uh… now, after all that,” he mutters, trying to wrap it all up the most elegantly he can. “I don’t know if I should keep going to the meetings. So I wanted to ask you… if… yeah.”

Graceful. He looks down, ashamed. Minseok finishes his coffee.

“Well, it depends,” Minseok finally says, after all that time of stunned silence. “I mean, did you join the study group just to impress Baekhyun?”

Yixing frowns. “No.” But then, he thinks well. He’s suspicious of himself. “I don’t know.”

“In my opinion, you didn’t,” Minseok intervenes. “I mean, you moved out from your home country to study here because of your ideology. It must’ve been a pain, but you still did it. You seem to genuinely care about bioequality, and you have very pertinent views about beta oppression, which I feel is not discussed enough in this institution.”

It’s mostly because he’s roommates with Jongdae, so he hears about what he has to go through almost every day. But about the group… “What if Baekhyun-sshi feels uncomfortable with me there?”

“I don’t think he’d care. He’ll probably just pretend nothing happened.” Minseok shrugs. “What’s important is that you didn’t use the group to get closer to him or anything, so you have the right to keep being a member. That’s how I think.”

“I see.” Yixing feels a bit relieved, and a lot thankful towards Minseok for thinking like that, but he also feels a bit glum. And so does Minseok, apparently, because he sighs.

“I feel a bit responsible for this. I should’ve guessed he was in heat,” he confesses, sounding regretful. “I was just trying to give you a little push. We were all rooting for you in the group.”

Yixing shuts his eyes closed, and buries his face on his hands. So he knew. “I should’ve gone to the doctor,” he laments.

“Oh, it wasn’t just the smell. The way you look at him… it’s like he’s made of gold.” Minseok chuckles. “And you stutter a lot around him. It’s a bit cliché and bionormative, but it’s cute.”

“I’m an idiot,” Yixing sighs, thinking of Baekhyun and feeling a dull ache in his chest, one that feels different from the usual pulls and tugs of the imprinting. “I think I really love him.”

“Oh, you _think_. Alright.” Minseok gets to his feet, ruffling Yixing’s hair in the process. “Let’s go, or we might be late. The drinks are on me today.” He then pauses, looking at Yixing as if studying him. “Not all is lost, okay? You’re not like most alphas. I think Baekhyun can see that, too.”

Deep down, Yixing wonders if he really isn’t like most alphas. If he’s really that different after all. But he says nothing; only sighs, resigned, and mumbles a, “I hope so.”

 

 

Tuesday. Sociology class day. Yixing, out of sheer dread from not having really understood all of the content in the prints, arrives late. To his horror, he discovers, as soon as he enters the classroom, that Baekhyun has arrived early.

The teacher is already inside, and barely looks at him when he creeps into the room, incredibly ashamed for being late to his favorite class. Things sure have changed… he avoids looking in Baekhyun’s general direction, and rushes to fish his notebook out of his bag, because the teacher is already talking about the text and he’s not sure of how big of a chunk he has missed.

Just as he’s fetching his pen case from the depths of his messy backpack, he feels his phone vibrate against his hand. He discreetly pulls it out and checks the home screen.

One new message from Baekhyun. Yixing’s heart almost stops.

He steals a glance at his beloved classmate, and finds him peeking at him from over his shoulder, his eyes unreadable. It’s redundant to say, at this point, that Yixing is quite nervous when he opens the app, adrenaline pumping through his veins.

 _we need 2 talk_ , the message says.

Jesus almighty, Yixing is gonna die.

 _ok_ , he replies, hands shaking. _after class?_

_ye. wait 4 me @ the door._

All Yixing can do is pray the the class could last five hours, just that day, for him to think of something to say when the time for The Talk comes. He doesn’t feel ready, and when has he ever felt ready when it came to Baekhyun? Not once, if he thinks well. His entire life since their fateful meeting has been improvising and flinging himself into unpredictable situations just to get some kind of positive reaction from the omega. Cliché and bionormative, indeed. Maybe this really wasn’t meant to be.

But the fact he loves Baekhyun can’t be changed at this point, so he’ll have to try and go for it anyway.

The words ‘class dismissed’ never felt so much like a curse before.

 

 

“So, first of all,” Baekhyun starts off right away when both of them meet face to face, not giving Yixing time to breathe. “I guess I owe you an apology.”

Oh? Yixing blinks, quite disoriented. Not the way he thought this would start as. “What for?”

“Uh, throwing myself at you without warning? And being generally rude to you.” Baekhyun sighs. “And avoiding you, because, yeah, I was doing that. When I said I didn’t know where my phone was, I lied. I did see your text.”

Yixing gasps. “Why didn’t you tell me not to go?!” He asks, horrified, and it sounds harsher than he intended to, so he softens his voice before adding, “I wouldn’t have gone if you had told me.”

“Ugh, I know, I just… heat thoughts.” Baekhyun shuts his eyes, clearly embarrassed, and pinches his nose bridge. “I didn’t start reading into your scent until a while ago. I was actually quite annoyed, not gonna lie, because it’s just like… it’s like every alpha I know just pretends to be my friend to get a fuck out of me. When I realized you liked me I was like, ugh, not again, you know?”

Yixing knows. Yixing has never gone through that, but he understands. Alphas really _are_ dickhats. “I’m sorry.”

“Last Sunday I actually bumped into Kim Jongdae at a coffee shop,” comes the confession from Baekhyun, who’s opened his eyes and is looking straight at Yixing, pining him down with the intensity of his gaze. “I ended up stopping him and asking him for advice. I asked if you were really a bioequalitist, you know, despite being an alpha.” A sigh. “He read me for filth.”

“He what?”

“He tore me down, basically. Said that you started a revolution at your past university, which you didn’t tell us, by the way, and told me you knew way more about beta rights movements than me. He went ahead and accused me of being a dick to you just because you’re an alpha, said I use the term ‘intersectional’ as an accessory, and called our study group an ‘edgy omega clique’.”

Yixing frowns deeply. “That was rude,” he points out. “He should apologize.”

“I think he has a point,” Baekhyun admits, shrugging. “I did misjudge you because you’re an alpha. And our group isn’t very varied. Minseok is an omega, Seungwan is an omega, Krystal is an omega, everyone is an omega. We really aren’t that much intersectional, in the end. I guess it’s time we debate more pertinent things than academic books.”

Even though Baekhyun doesn’t seem to think much of that, Yixing feels a bit sad for him. It’s not his fault he’s distrustful of alphas. He’s doing what he can. He’s trying his best.

“Yixing… do you seriously like me?” Baekhyun asks without warning. Yixing, surprised and caught off-guard, looks up with wide eyes, and feels his breath threaten to stop.

What he sees is Baekhyun. Just Baekhyun standing there, the sunlight shining through the pergola above them, reflecting beautifully on his chocolate-colored locks, glowing over the smooth skin of his face. On the back of his head, Yixing is aware Baekhyun is a little plain looking, if not only slightly prettier than average, but… something about him, something he can’t explain, is vivid and mesmerizing, like the bits of his personality that come out every time he talks. And what Yixing feels is definitely no longer the imprinting; it has nothing of its tosses and turns and physical unwellness. It’s just a swelling emotion of yearning.

“Yes, I like you,” he admits with ease. It’s easy to confess when your feelings are about to burst out. “I did imprint on you, at first sight, but that faded away, and I still like you. I think you are beautiful and smart, and fun to be with, and—and just, you’re a great person.”

Baekhyun snorts. He actually snorts. “A great person? Are you sure?”

“Why not?” Yixing tilts his head.

“Just… even though I labelled you as shallow and deceitful just because you’re an alpha?”

“It happens.” Yixing shrugs. “It’s okay. Alphas are dickhats sometimes.”

“Pfft.” Baekhyun shakes his head in laughter, his entire face lit up. “Yeah, they sure is. But you’re not a dickhat, Zhang Yixing.”

Oh my God!

Yay! Yixing has made it! His wooing plan was one-hundred-percent a success!! 

“And honestly, this is way too straight for me, but I actually think you’re kinda cute,” Baekhyun admits, looking at Yixing through his lashes, and Yixing’s face turns an unattractive shade of beetroot purple. “Specially when you blush like that,” Baekhyun points out, “which is quite often. So congratulations, you look quite cute most of the time.”

“T-thank you,” Yixing looks away, putting his hands on his cheeks to try to force the blush away. He feels heavenly happy right now, so happy that he’s in danger of floating away into the atmosphere, in fact. “Uh, you’re also really cute, Baekhyun-sshi.”

“Just Baekhyun is fine,” the Law student says as he steps closer, gently putting a hand over Yixing’s own, and removing it from where it rests on his face. His cold hands, long fingers… Baekhyun entwines those long fingers with Yixing’s own, and plants a quick kiss on Yixing’s still very red cheek. “Let’s try out being a soap opera couple, shall we?”

Yixing is forever thankful to freight trains and Sociology.

 

 

 

 

As it turns out, Baekhyun is quite showy about he and Yixing being an item now. He makes a point for them to arrive at the next meeting hand in hand, shocking a newcomer, who’s actually one of the betas in their Sociology class, into silence.

“Ooh, look at them,” Krystal jeers, feigning disgust. “Straighties in our clique.”

“The clique is officially dissolved,” Baekhyun announces with unnecessary pomp, putting his hand on his chest rather solemnly. “Let’s think our priorities over, and go back to putting the ‘intersectional’ in our name to good use.”

As for Yixing, he tells his roommates all about it, in person, as soon as he gets home after The Talk. Reactions to the news are mixed, meaning Amber is absolutely psyched, while Jongdae looks a bit green to the face.

“I—look, Yixing, I gotta tell you something—”

“About Saturday?” Yixing interrupts, a knowing smile on his lips.

“Yeah…” Jongdae grimaces, looking about as guilty as someone can look. “He told you, didn’t he?”

“He wasn’t offended. Said you have a point.” Yixing shrugs, unable to erase the smile from his face. “Eveything’s okay now.”

Jongdae sighs. Then, he allows himself a smile. “All is well if it ends well, right?”

“I guess so.” Yixing has his share of guilt, for not telling Jongdae everything, so he figures this is his friend’s way of saying he’s forgiven.

All in all, dating Baekhyun is actually a pretty awesome thing. Baekhyun is good at conversations, good at telling jokes, fun to be with, and super smart, as well as willing to help Yixing with any academic difficulties he has. He’s also really into skinship, which means a lot of holding hands and stolen kisses here and there, some a bit deeper and more passionate than the others, when they’re in a location private enough. Yixing really enjoys that part, because he really likes Baekhyun and he really likes being intimate with Baekhyun, but he has to admit that his boyfriend’s touchy-feeliness makes things quite hard for him sometimes.

He might not be a typical hypersexual alpha, but he does have his needs, after all.

“Uh, Baekhyun-sshi,” he once interrupts a quite heated make-out session at Baekhyun’s place, right between one breathtaking kiss and the next, a hand gently placed on Baekhyun’s chest to sort of keep him at a safe distance. The ‘Baekhyun-sshi’ thing, by the way, is being particularly hard to shake off, to the point of turning almost into a term of endearment by then. “M-maybe we should study now, right?”

“Tsk,” Baekhyun clicks his tongue with impatience, his eyes trailing from Yixing’s own, down to his cheek, then to his lips. “We can do that later. The assignment won’t run away. Unfortunately.”

“But,” Yixing starts off, but Baekhyun kisses him again, and he completely forgets what he was about to say.

“If you really want me to stop, I’ll stop. But be honest with me.” Now, Baekhyun stares right into Yixing’s soul. “Do you want me to stop?”

Does Yixing want him to stop? The answer is no, definitely not. The problem is where all this kissing and touching is taking him. He’s aware that he might be exhaling all the kinds of pheromones right now.

“Not really, but…” Yixing tries to articulate a rebuttal, but all he gets to is, “I’m… I’m getting… a bit…”

“Hm,” Baekhyun grins knowingly. Oh. He definitely can smell something coming from Yixing. He knows. _Again_. “A bit what?”

Oh God, what’s the word for that again? Horny? Turned on? Physically stimulated? “Excited,” Yixing says at last, his mouth watering when he notices Baekhyun licking his lips. This is almost too much.

“That’s good,” Baekhyun purrs, leaning forward to lick Yixing’s lips quite lewdly. “Because,” a finger starts tracing a line along Yixing’s thigh, and wow, who knew his thighs were an erogenous zone, “it’s about to get _really_ exciting here.”

Baekhyun’s intentions are crystal clear; Yixing doesn’t need a keen sense of smell to know what he wants. He’s more than willing to give it to him, too, so this situation is quite perfect. There’s only one thing Yixing needs to add…

“Baekhyun-sshi, if we… if we get to having sex,” he starts off a bit awkwardly, distracted by the vision of Baekhyun taking off his shirt. “Do you want to top?”

Bang. An explosion of sweet and spicy scent, like vanilla and almonds. Baekhyun is perfectly frozen in his previous position, his shirt in his hands, his eyes as wide as saucers, gleaming with int in Yixing’s direction. Yixing almost laughs at how intense the scent is, how it makes Baekhyun’s feelings and needs even more clear.

A good sense of smell can be useful indeed. As shabby as it is most of the time, Yixing is glad he has that one alpha trait in him.


End file.
